Mass Rally & March on June 5 in U.S.

23 May 2004.

Thousands at the White House will say: "Bush and Rumsfeld - Guilty of War Crimes"
"I plan to be in Washington DC on June 5 at the peace rally. We will be marching from Bush's White House to Rumsfeld's house and I am hoping that everyone who cares about peace in this country will join us."
- Michael Berg

Michael Berg, the father of Nicholas Berg who was murdered in Iraq, will be a speaker at the June 5th Speak Truth to Power mass demonstration and speak-out in front of the White House. This rally will reflect the grassroots voices of those who have suffered and are suffering because of the Bush administration's war in Iraq, Palestine, Haiti and right here against working people in the United States.

The Speak Truth to Power rally will feature the voices of the mothers and fathers of soldiers who oppose the war; those in the Muslim and Arab communities whose families have been ripped apart through raids, detentions, and secret hearings; representatives of the working class communities in Washington, DC and elsewhere who are suffering because of the destruction of social programs; we will hear the voices of the people of Haiti and the Philippines and Korea who are living under U.S. military intervention and occupation. June 5 is the anniversary of the Israeli seizure of the West Bank and Gaza and we will hear the voice of the embattled Palestinian people who to this moment are having their children shot and their homes razed as the U.S.-backed violence escalates.

Following the People's Speak-Out, thousands of people will march through working class neighborhoods and arrive at the home - the mansion - of Donald Rumsfeld. Coming as it does just three and a half weeks before the June 30 phony "transfer of sovereignty," the June 5 rally and march will be a powerful challenge by the people to the administration and its plans for continued occupation. The people of the world and the world media will be looking on June 5th to see if the people stand against the Bush administration's wars of aggression.

Abu Ghraib and Vietnam

The scope and systematic practice of torture, savage beatings, sexual assault and sick humiliation of prisoners in U.S. custody in Iraq and elsewhere burst again into the front pages of newspapers around the world after the publication of statements from detainees and new pictures in the Washington Post (May 21), and the broadcast of new videos documenting a few of the horrors inflicted on an occupied people. No one should doubt for a moment that the people of the region are seething - they and the whole world now know for a fact that the torture and cruelty visited upon mass arrest detainees in Afghanistan, Guantanamo and now Iraq was an approved operation by Bush and Rumsfeld.

On the same day as the Washington Post released the new horrifying photos, U.S. aircraft dropped bombs on a wedding party in northern Iraq killing more than 40 people, including the bride and groom and a large number of children. The U.S. military followed up on the ground shooting those that lived one by one. In response to world outrage at this massacre and the images of wounded, dead and decapitated children, Maj. Gen. James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, told reporters in Fallujah, "Bad things happen in wars. I don't have to apologize for the conduct of my men."

With all the obvious differences, it is clear that in its essence the Iraq occupation is George W. Bush's Vietnam. The Bush and Rumsfeld fantasy will be defeated, in many ways it is defeated. That's what makes it their "Vietnam." Unless the people of the United States act now, however, the killing in Iraq will continue for years. In Vietnam the killing and carnage continued for years after U.S. policy makers knew full well that they could not militarily defeat the Vietnamese.

U.S. political and military leaders became convinced that the war in Vietnam was not winnable as early as 1968 and yet the war dragged on for another five bloody years. The bombing continued on, the CIA assassinations of opponents in south Vietnam escalated (the Operation Phoenix Program) into the tens of thousands between 1968-1973, another 30,000 soldiers went to their graves during those years, and the number of Vietnamese civilians killed could be counted in the thousands each week. What a waste, what a crime, and it will be repeated in Iraq unless the people unite to demand: End the Occupation, Bring the Troops Home Now!

The stakes are high and the June 5 mobilization will open the next stage of the antiwar movement - utilizing new tactics to begin mass organizing on the grassroots level in every community.